4. Recess appointments. Bush makes use of this power.
5. Calling Congress into session in emergencies and determining adjournments when the two houses cannot agree. This is less relevant now that Congress hardly ever goes home.
And the President is understood to have these checks on the judicial branch, which he indeed still has:
1. Appointing judges. Bush still has this power.
2. Pardoning convicts. Bush still has this power. He has even commuted the sentence of a White House staffer convicted of obstructing justice in a case Bush himself is involved in (an act that James Madison and George Mason deemed an impeachable offense). Bush also has taken unto himself the power to order former staffers to obstruct justice, the power to refuse subpoenas, and the power to refuse to testify under oath or without the vice president at his side.
The executive branch also has a check on itself. The vice president and cabinet can vote that the president is unable to discharge his duties.
The judicial branch has an important check on Congress and the president in that it can rule laws to be unconstitutional. The chief justice of the supreme court also serves as president of the Senate during a presidential impeachment. But that power depends on the House of Representatives first impeaching.
The legislative branch is supposed to have an array of checks on the president and vice president, including various minor powers of oversight. Congress can override a presidential veto, but that power is rendered meaningless by the new presidential power of the signing statement. The Senate has the power to approve or reject appointments and treaties. Both houses of Congress can approve or reject a new vice president, but that power depends on removing the current one.
Congress has the power to put a halt to any activity of the executive branch by defunding it, but the current president has misappropriated funds to engage in activities never approved by Congress, such as the secret initial steps in the invasion of Iraq or the secret warrantless spying programs, as well as activities for which Congress has banned the use of funds, such as the construction of permanent military bases in Iraq. (In the president's defense he says the bases are not permanent, but only enduring, but no one has successfully explained what that means or how it gets around the language in the various congressional bans signed into law by Bush.) The Democrats in Congress claim to oppose continuing the occupation of Iraq, but they're about to throw another $102 billion at it. They will do so, (unless the public rises up and stops them), in part out of fear of the media calling them silly names, but in part out of fear of Bush misappropriating funds and continuing the occupation anyway. In that situation, they would be obliged to impeach the president or look even more foolish than usual. Last September during General David Petraeus's first round of testimony, Congressman Brad Sherman asked him what he would do if Congress stopped funding the occupation and Bush ordered him to continue it anyway. Petraeus said he could not answer without checking with his lawyer.
Congress has the power to request or subpoena witnesses or documents, to file Freedom of Information Act requests, and to issue contempt citations to desired witnesses who fail to comply with subpoenas. But those are all powers that evaporate if the power of impeachment is removed. In the current Congress, the Speaker of the House has promised never to impeach. As a result, the executive branch simply ignores FOIA requests, subpoenas, and contempt citations. Condoleezza Rice gave the most straightforward explanation of this practice when she refused to comply with a subpoena last year. She said that she would not comply because she was "not inclined to do so."
Impeachment is not just the power on which all the other intra-governmental powers of the legislative branch depend. It is the central power through which the framers of the Constitution expected the legislative branch to be able to hold the other two branches in check. Impeachment was given to the House as the part of our government closest to the people. Unlike almost anything else, impeachment is mentioned in six separate places in the Constitution. The Constitution is considerably shorter than this paper I'm reading you today. It is a very concise document that tells us nothing about how to run elections, that makes no mention of political parties or primaries, that has not one word about corporations, that describes the process of impeachment in some detail and gives it prominence and central importance in every way. The initial discussion of the House of Representatives in Article I Section 2 is one-sentence:
"The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment."
In Article I, Section 3, the role of the Senate is discussed purely in terms of impeachment trials, and six sentences are devoted to explaining the process.
Article II, which covers the executive branch, has four sections, and the fourth consists of this one sentence:
"The President, Vice President, and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors."
George Mason remarked that: "No point is of more importance than that the right of impeachment should be continued. Shall any man be above Justice? Above all shall that man be above it, who can commit the most extensive injustice?"
5. Calling Congress into session in emergencies and determining adjournments when the two houses cannot agree. This is less relevant now that Congress hardly ever goes home.
And the President is understood to have these checks on the judicial branch, which he indeed still has:
1. Appointing judges. Bush still has this power.
The executive branch also has a check on itself. The vice president and cabinet can vote that the president is unable to discharge his duties.
The judicial branch has an important check on Congress and the president in that it can rule laws to be unconstitutional. The chief justice of the supreme court also serves as president of the Senate during a presidential impeachment. But that power depends on the House of Representatives first impeaching.
The legislative branch is supposed to have an array of checks on the president and vice president, including various minor powers of oversight. Congress can override a presidential veto, but that power is rendered meaningless by the new presidential power of the signing statement. The Senate has the power to approve or reject appointments and treaties. Both houses of Congress can approve or reject a new vice president, but that power depends on removing the current one.
Congress has the power to put a halt to any activity of the executive branch by defunding it, but the current president has misappropriated funds to engage in activities never approved by Congress, such as the secret initial steps in the invasion of Iraq or the secret warrantless spying programs, as well as activities for which Congress has banned the use of funds, such as the construction of permanent military bases in Iraq. (In the president's defense he says the bases are not permanent, but only enduring, but no one has successfully explained what that means or how it gets around the language in the various congressional bans signed into law by Bush.) The Democrats in Congress claim to oppose continuing the occupation of Iraq, but they're about to throw another $102 billion at it. They will do so, (unless the public rises up and stops them), in part out of fear of the media calling them silly names, but in part out of fear of Bush misappropriating funds and continuing the occupation anyway. In that situation, they would be obliged to impeach the president or look even more foolish than usual. Last September during General David Petraeus's first round of testimony, Congressman Brad Sherman asked him what he would do if Congress stopped funding the occupation and Bush ordered him to continue it anyway. Petraeus said he could not answer without checking with his lawyer.
Congress has the power to request or subpoena witnesses or documents, to file Freedom of Information Act requests, and to issue contempt citations to desired witnesses who fail to comply with subpoenas. But those are all powers that evaporate if the power of impeachment is removed. In the current Congress, the Speaker of the House has promised never to impeach. As a result, the executive branch simply ignores FOIA requests, subpoenas, and contempt citations. Condoleezza Rice gave the most straightforward explanation of this practice when she refused to comply with a subpoena last year. She said that she would not comply because she was "not inclined to do so."
Impeachment is not just the power on which all the other intra-governmental powers of the legislative branch depend. It is the central power through which the framers of the Constitution expected the legislative branch to be able to hold the other two branches in check. Impeachment was given to the House as the part of our government closest to the people. Unlike almost anything else, impeachment is mentioned in six separate places in the Constitution. The Constitution is considerably shorter than this paper I'm reading you today. It is a very concise document that tells us nothing about how to run elections, that makes no mention of political parties or primaries, that has not one word about corporations, that describes the process of impeachment in some detail and gives it prominence and central importance in every way. The initial discussion of the House of Representatives in Article I Section 2 is one-sentence:
"The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment."
In Article I, Section 3, the role of the Senate is discussed purely in terms of impeachment trials, and six sentences are devoted to explaining the process.
Article II, which covers the executive branch, has four sections, and the fourth consists of this one sentence:
"The President, Vice President, and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors."
George Mason remarked that: "No point is of more importance than that the right of impeachment should be continued. Shall any man be above Justice? Above all shall that man be above it, who can commit the most extensive injustice?"
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